CoveritLive hacked; Consumer data presumed Stolen

Today morning, I woke up to see the following email from Cover It Live.

CoveritLive recently discovered that certain proprietary data files were accessed without authorization starting on or about January 7, 2012. We have not yet determined if, or to what extent, CoveritLive account information (i.e., user names, email addresses and/or passwords) was accessed. We do know, however, that no financial account information has been compromised.

…

We take this matter very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that all appropriate measures are taken to protect your personal information from unauthorized access. We also would like to take this moment to remind you of a couple of tips that should always be followed:

· Do not open emails from senders you do not know. Be especially cautious of “phishing” emails, where the sender tries to trick the recipient into disclosing confidential or personal information.

· Do not share personal or sensitive information via email. Legitimate companies will not attempt to collect personal information outside of a secure website.

We regret any inconvenience that this password change process may cause you. Please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

CoveritLive Team

CoveritLive, as you might know, is a tool used primarily for live blogging. Many popular websites and blogs such as ESPN, USA Today and ZDNet use CoveritLive for live blogging.

According to the email sent to its customers, CoveritLive user’s passwords are encrypted and there is no evidence yet that they have been retrieved. The email also states that no financial data has been stolen, which is a major relief for its customers.

As of now, we don’t know exactly what kind of data was stolen. The company has started an investigation and hopefully more details will be released soon.

In the meantime, if you have a CoveritLive account, I strongly suggest that you change the password immediately. In fact, from today (January 14) onwards, CoveritLive will be enforcing a password reset for all of its users. So when you login to CoveritLive next time, you’ll be asked to change the password.

If you have been using the same password for any other accounts, it is a good idea to change that as well.

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Nithin Ramesh

Nithin is a blogger and a Windows security enthusiast. He is currently pursuing Bachelors in Electronics and Communication. Apart from technology his other interests include reading and rock music. His Twitter handle is @nithinr6 View all posts by Nithin Ramesh